The big picture
- Billie Eilish's “CHIHIRO” is inspired by Studio Ghibli
tucked away
exploring themes such as identity, isolation and coming of age. - Eilish's latest album features rich visuals and a multi-dimensional production that shares many parallels with Studio Ghibli films.
- Eilish's artistic vision and connection to Studio Ghibli has been evident since her debut album, with the films inspiring her visual art and songwriting.
The best songs from Billie Eilish's latest album will find you transported to a world of sonic delights, floating in a sea of lush instrumentation and beautiful melodies. The richness of imagery found in songwriting Hit me hard and soft combined with the multi-dimensional output of his brother/collaborator FINNEAS envelops you in a musical experience that feels cinematic. This is no more true than in the third track, “CHIHIRO,” which actually has a direct cinematic influence that many Studio Ghibli the fans have picked up on it.
“CHIHIRO” takes its name from the central character a Hayao Miyazaki2001 movie, tucked away. As the first hand-drawn film to win Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards, and a film that, in just a couple of decades, has cemented itself as a consensus inclusion in many lists of the greatest films ever made, tucked away no introduction needed. It certainly needs no introduction to Eilish, who has spoken about the film many times over the years, referring to it as a personal favorite and a work that has inspired her own art over the years. “CHIHIRO” is the most direct instance of Eilish drawing lyrically and thematically from a Studio Ghibli film, but the films have followed her throughout her career, shaping her artistic approach in interesting ways .
Billie Eilish's “Hit Me Hard and Soft” is about loss and identity
Eilish's third album explores love and heartbreak from various perspectives. Many of the songs seem written from the point of view of someone feeling a myriad of conflicting emotions after the end of a relationship. While many of Studio Ghibli's most iconic films aren't necessarily centered around romance, they are explore complex human relationshipsand the internalized feelings that come with these relationships.
The album finds Eilish reflecting on feeling lost within herself and seeking reassurance about the future. The album cover, an image of Eilish falling through an open door into a vast body of water, is a surreal image that looks like it could fit into a fantasy sequence from a Studio Ghibli film. The image signifies feelings of isolation and disconnection. Water is a recurring motif throughout the record, as with many Studio Ghibli films where elements of nature appear again and again. Not all of the songs on the album are taken directly from a Miyazaki film, but their composition evokes many of the complex and rich feelings that come through the films, especially tucked away.
Billie Eilish's “CHIHIRO” is straight out of the themes of “Spirited Away”.
Although not a single, “CHIHIRO” has become one of the most successful songs on the album. Following the perspective of a character who is distant from the world around him, Eilish explained rolling stone how the song connects directly tucked away:
“It's kind of [Chihiro’s] point of view, mixed with mine. The visuals in this movie are some of the best ever – all this Studio Ghibli crap is amazing. There are all these pictures of the train in the water after the flood, and it literally looks like an ocean with a train track. I had just watched Spirited Away and Finneas had made that beat. I love this movie. I've seen it so many times.”
The film centers on Chihiro being pulled into a strange, spiritual realm where people take on new names, lose their memories, and encounter all sorts of surreal figures that don't exist in the real world. Chihiro finds herself alone, separated from everything and everyone she once knew, and trying to find solace and strength in this difficult situation.
In “CHIHIRO,” Eilish writes from a similar emotional framework about feeling lonely and wanting a better understanding of her life's direction. Eilish's lyrics are steeped in metaphors, and many of them can be directly linked to the film. In the first verse, she sings about forgetting her name, which happens to Chihiro when Yubaba, a mysterious witch, strips her of her identity and makes her work in a bathhouse. In the second verse, Eilish alludes to seeing loved ones in a restaurant, only for them to turn around and have different faces. This part seems to reflect Chihiro finding her parents turned into pigs, unable to recognize her or communicate in any meaningful way, and both the film and the song relate the fear of feeling invisible to loved ones in relation to this.
The final verse of the song recalls Chihiro's encounter with Haku, the mystical dragon, in a garden. In this scene, Chihiro remembers her own name and forms a relationship that she later reveals has deeper roots in her past. “There's a part of me that recognizes you,” Eilish sings, evoking Chihiro finally acknowledging that Haku saved her years earlier in the real world. These lyrical allusions to the film's story draw on similar themes of identity, coming of age, fear of abandonment, and ultimately reconnection with oneself.
Studio Ghibli has always inspired Billie Eilish's music
Although “CHIHIRO” is the most explicit nod to Studio Ghibli in Eilish's discography to date, the films have resonated with her since her debut album. With an extensive run of some of the most iconic anime films ever made, it's no surprise that one of the most gifted musicians of this generation was inspired by Studio Ghibli. Eilish opened up about her love for Miyazaki in a 2019 video interview VICI. He explained how he draws images to correlate with each song and that his visual art is where a cohesive vision for a record begins. “I owe a lot to Miyazaki,” Eilish says of her artistic vision. He also notes that she has a crush on Haku and makes connections between her first album and the aesthetic qualities of No Face.
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The music video and cover art for “My Future,” the lead single from Eilish's second studio album, pays tribute to Studio Ghibli. The animated video sees Eilish walking through a forest that comes to life in a psychedelic, dreamlike way. The images of nature feel familiar to any Ghibli fan, com humanity's relationship with the environment is a central theme in many Miyazaki films, incl tucked awayand above all Princess Mononoke.
Eilish is a seminal pop star of her era, but her interest in the world of film continues to push her to new and interesting places musically. with two Oscars for best song already under his belt, and an infinite number of cinematic influences from which he draws, Eilish understands the value of the relationship between film and music better than any of his contemporaries. tucked away gave birth to one of her most stunning songs to date, and speaks to how a personal connection to a beloved work of art can inspire something beautiful.
tucked away is available to watch on Max in the US
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